A highly philosophical experimental black metal band from France, Deathspell Omega eschew the traditional roles of a rock (or for that matter, a metal) band for something far more mercurial, constantly reinventing their sound and never playing live or setting into stone the exact make-up of the roster. Employing a punishing sonic attack and a metaphysical take on Satanism, the group emerged in 2000 with the lo-fi Infernal Battles. Subsequent LPs such as Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (2007), Paracletus (2010), and The Furnaces of Palingenesia (2019) upped the production values and looked to surrealism and existentialism, as well as Satanism, for inspiration. Formed in 1998, Deathspell Omega released their first two albums, 2000's Infernal Battles and 2002's Inquisitors of Satan, via Norma Evangelium Diaboli. Both albums did well in the underground metal community, but it was their next release that garnered the most attention, both commercially and critically. The first of what was to be a trilogy, the largely avant-garde Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (translated from the Latin "If You Seek His Monument, Look Around") was a departure from the group's more traditionally black metal-sounding early work both in structure and in production. In 2007, the group released the next chapter of the trilogy, Fas -- Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum ("Divine Law -- Depart from Me, Ye Cursed Into Everlasting Fire") to more acclaim, including being named album of the year by U.K. metal magazine Terrorizer. 2010's Paracletus completed the trilogy, with the thematically connected EP Drought seeing release two years later. The full-length Synarchy of Molten Bones arrived in 2016, followed by The Furnaces of Palingenesia in 2019, the latter of which dealt with the deconstruction of an authoritarian regime. ~ Chris True